ATTACKS ON FRENCH MEDIA

Created: 12/27/1982

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

APPROVED (OR RELEASE DATE: SEP ?IC0

FRANCE-USSR: Attacks on French Media

French Communist Party and the SovietParis have accused the French media ot conductingcampaign. The party has chargedstate-supervised television and radio networks"false reports" about the use ofon the Soviet gas pipeline to Western EuropeBulgaria's involvement in the assassinationthe Pope. The Soviet Embassy,ettereditors, has denounced the media foragainst the USSR.

^TCS^OO/82

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Comment: French Communist leaders have grown in-creasingly angry about what they view as the government's tolerance of anti-Communist reporting on television and radio. Their willingness to side openly with the Soviets will aggravate already strained relations with Socialist coalition partners and could alienate those Communist voters who oppose close identification with Moscow. Tho Soviets have begun responding more actively to Western charges of Bulgarian and Soviet complicity in the attack